Permanent URL: https://library.spscc.edu/guides/history
After getting some background on your topic, we'll be ready to dive into more specific, narrow information.
For most history topics at SPSCC, you'll have the best luck starting your searches in Quick Search. Use the box directly below this one to run a search. Remember, Quick Search finds books in the library, online ebooks, and articles from most of our databases.
Find online and print books through Quick Search.
Good For: In-depth information on a narrow topic. Chapters on a narrow topic.
Examples: Academic Search Complete, Research Library
Good For: Finding news, popular magazine articles, and scholarly articles.
Quick Tip: Match your database to the subject area of your topic or your class. Consider what type of experts are writing about your topic.
Use these databases to get started. These are both multi-subject databases, which means that they include popular and scholarly sources from many different subject areas. For example, in these multi-subject databases, you can find articles from fields like psychology, education, computer science, and more.
Video by Yavapai College Library
If you find articles that SPSCC does not have full text access to, use Interlibrary Loan to get a free copy from a partner library.
Let's say you find a reference in a book or article and you cannot find it at SPSCC library - use Interlibrary Loan. Or maybe you used Google Scholar or JSTOR to see what else is out there and you found some promising options, but hit a paywall - use Interlibrary Loan.
There are several open access journals in the field of history. Here is a link to ones that focus only on History of America, which does include Latin America. A handful have a specific focus on history in the United States. Search or browse within these to find articles that can be read for free.
Use this same site, Directory of Open Access Journals, to search for articles on your subject.
Primary sources are artifacts from the time period that you are studying. Find primary sources with the tools listed on the side of this "tip box."
At SPSCC, the best databases for finding articles that have analysis by historians are the multi-subject databases listed above.
